This year’s tour made over £4,000, half of which has gone straight to Llandysul Paddlers Centre and the River Teifi. We are determined to improve participation in paddlesport across the UK, be it through improving access and club grants. If you or your club know of a cause that River Legacy can help with, no matter how big or small, get in touch with us at team@river-legacy.org.uk

The deadline for objections to the latest hydro proposal on the Conwy is this Friday. River Legacy recently supported Save the River Conwy with a donation of £675 to pay for local advertising, but what will really make a difference is if all our friends register their objections to the plans. Please visit their facebook page or website (www.savetheconwy.com) to find out how to object. Your objections could help prevent the loss of a classic whitewater river as well as preventing untold damage to a site of special scientific interest. Please, get involved.

River Legacy are pleased to be able to announce that we have donated £500 to help the ‘Waters of Wales’ group promote their work. If you haven’t yet checked out their Facebook Page get over there and see the good work they are doing and how you can help in the campaign on getting access rights changed in Wales.

Wow. What a weekend; 2 great nights, our logo in the trees, Legacy Team Paddlers on the water at an event, more black lights than CSI, Deecee on the Mic, No water, then Water, a brilliant gathering of sponsors. Tryweryn 2016 we thank you. The National White Water Centre – Canolfan Dŵr Gwyn Genedlaethol, Pyranha Kayaks, Palm Equipment, Alpkit, NRS, Rhino Audio Visual. A big shout out to our Volunteers. Thank you for continuing to give up your time. Remember, River Legacy doesn’t just put on great parties. The money made at the bar is put back into paddling. So if you have a project to improve access or facilities, get in touch with us on FB or email at team@river-legacy.org.uk . Same applies if you would like us to help you run a party at your next event. See you on the water, or at the bar.

Here’s a little something a new volunteer, Matt France from Swansea Uni Canoe Club has written about volunteering at National Student Rodeo. Between River Legacy and Luucc an awful lot of hard work and time goes in to making NSR a success year after year, it was extremely heart-warming to read this and reminds us all why we give up our annual leave, skive off lectures or just give our time to make events like this possible. If you’d like to volunteer with us in future, fill out the volunteers form at http://padl.es/helplegacy. It’s a long read, but it’s worth it, so thank you Matt

“The last time you heard from me it was all about the Dart Dash. Well this time, it is about something very different and yet just as fun. You all know of it but you know nothing about it. They call it NSR!

What you do know about NSR is that it is expensive to go and that it involves play boating and a competition. The truth is that there is so much more to it than that. Unfortunately there were only a few Swansea members that had the money and time to invest in NSR and so people should direct their questions to them to find out about the competition and safety shenanigans. However this is not a story about kayaking but a story about volunteering, making friends and having a good time.

So it all kicked off on the Wednesday where River Legacy rocked up in Nottingham and started putting up the party marquees, barriers and carpeting fields, helped by Phil and G. After a brief Wednesday of essay writing and road tripping, Nick and myself also arrived in Nottingham ready to help. A pizza, alcohol and a game of cards against humanity later and off we popped to the land of dreams in preparation for some hard work the next day.

As we dragged ourselves from sleep to the delicious smell of bacon and coffee, plans were draw u as to what needed doing and who was going to get it done. Everyone set about their chores, building a bar, setting up a kitchen and doing the lighting. Everyone was routinely called away to help with the numerous delivery of food, alcohol, tables, chairs and heaters. Bit by bit everything started to come together. Bins were delivered and fire extinguishers were strategically placed. Somewhere in the day there was lunch made by the brilliant kitchen crew before carrying on with the jobs that needed to be done. Lets just say it was a long day and for those in charge, pretty stressful! In the evening, dinner happened and everyone sat down for the ‘staff party’ and a well deserved drink.

Friday morning was, as you say in south east Aisa ‘same same but different’. More breakfast, more deliveries, more barriers being put up and carpet being put down. The main part of the day for a few of us was building the stage, whereas others started preparing dinner for the numerous NSR competitors and party goers. After lunch, porter loos and a tent for the bouncers were set up and finally the heaters were filled with diesel to warm the marquees for the evening’s party.

The party started slow, with the different university’s arriving at random times throughout the evening. I feel it is worth mentioning the fact that we met a university (can’t remember who) that took the competition side a bit too seriously and ended their night at 10 in order to get a god nights sleep. I don’t think they would make it very far in SUCC. By the time the last university arrived, the bar staff were already working at full whack with no end in sight. Needless to say that whenever a member of staff finished their bar rota, they sat down for a well deserved drink! Loud music, lots of drinks and a bit of dancing led to a memorable end of night for pretty much everyone.

Saturday rolled around with a nice lie in. Volunteers got most of the day to themselves as the evening preparations were due to start at 15:30. Most of the morning was spent nursing hangovers before walking to the HPP whitewater course. We got chatting to a few of the people on the stands that were there getting some good advice on kit, free doughnuts and cans of red bull. After watching what can only be described as the most carnage I have seen since the battle of the Ogmore, we too decided to give HPP a go, demoing a few different boats. If you want to progress at your whitewater play boating then I cannot recommend this course enough. The waves are nice and surfable and the holes hold you just the right amount. Super fun! Anywho, 15:30 appeared on our watches so off we went, back to work. Christmas decorations were hung up all over the tent (did I mention that it was christmas themed?) and food was made ready for the 5 o’clock dinner schedule. As people turned up for food, we found ourselves submerged by the number of people asking for a glass of water. Swimming is thirsty work. Due to this major influx of thirst fuelled contestants, we decided to fill jugs full of water so people could serve themselves. This then turned into a game. The different jugs of water were labelled as containing ‘free water’, ‘water for £1’, ‘egg nogg’, ‘special brew’ and ‘man-up juice’. The people looking really worn out always went for ‘man-up juice’, no one went for ‘egg nogg’, ‘special brew’ got a disappointed look each time and people only went for ‘water for £1’ when ‘free water’ was empty, although they only served themselves when the bar staff wasn’t looking and never gave £1.

When dinner was over, the tables got packed away (shout out to the people that helped without being asked). After that there was an NSR film competition. Films had been submitted by university’s and independent participants and were watched by everyone on a projector. Needless to say, it was really good fun and there were a few films that stood out (at least to me) as being super kickass. I feel the need to mention the one made by Aber, Aberdeen and the Rob Crowe Show and if they read this can they please put the videos up on the SUCC group because everyone needs to watch them.

Anyway. After films had happened, people left to get into their most bestest christmas outfits while the staff put the benches away. Once this was one it was party time!! As the volume of the music increased, so did the number of people surrounding the bar in the search for alcohol. As a group costume, Bristol uni would have won any competition if there was one, they went as the full nativity, it was amazing. Prize for the single best outfit though goes to baby jesus… An Image I am not likely to forget anytime soon. Working on the bar, my most memorable moment was when a lad from Aberdeen paid with Scottish monies. After giving him his change and taking the order of the lady next to him I the preceded to give her the required money back. This of course involved said Scottish money. She then gave me a very sour look and said ‘what is this, this isn’t real money’, to which Mr Aberdeen man and her got into quite a funny argument (thanks Mr Aberdeen man). Well, lets just say that after my bar shift, I went in search of drink and friends and unfortunately (or fortunately) found a bit too much of both. I think I had a shandy bass too many. After a good few hours partying we realised it was 4 in the morning and decided to go and investigate the camp site to see who else was up and about but everyone had passed out from tired-ness or more probably, from an alcohol induced coma.

Well lets just say the wake up on Sunday morning was a tough one. With a pounding head and severe lack of motivation we had a quick breakfast around 10:30 and got cracking with cleaning all of the party mess, taking up the carpet, dismantling the bar and stage, cleaning the kitchen. Again, a brief lunch was had then we carried on taking down fences, emptying overloaded bins and re-loading a van full of benches and tables. As the day went by we lost volunteer after volunteer as they all had to get home for work the next day and each had different driving times. (It is probably worth mentioning we didn’t have many volunteers to start with on the Sunday so it was all the harder to find the hungover motivation needed). Well. At 6 pm we called it a day with pretty much only the river legacy marquee to take down (although I am sure there was a lot more to it as there always seems to be). A few of us then went for a pub dinner before heading home as others went straight to bed for a much needed sleep.

Lessons learnt: Volunteers work their socks off for you and never get much of a break. A 10 minute job is never a 10 minute job. NSR is was more fun than I have ever been told. If you go to volunteer, help out, don’t just go say you will, it is hard work and an extra hand is worth a lot.

Special thanks: Ben, Ben 3, James, Simon, G, Adam, Phil, Nick, Yay, Yas, Rob, Zakk, Rach, Richard. Along with all the other peeps who worked on the bar and volunteers who were in the kitchen and everyone else who I forgot to mention and everyone from River Legacy. NSR would not be what it is without you.

Booties owed: From what I saw, an awful lot of people but for the sake of: Aiden, I don’t know who you are but you had your name on the back of your helmet and you swam like a bitch.

Would I do it again? Yes

Why? Awesome fun, awesome people, hard work but well worth the reward!

Tryweryn Fest was an absolute blast this year! Massive thank you to our wonderful sponsors for some fab events & stalls! Also huge thank you to Manon’s for feeding us all delicious chilli and coffee all weekend and River Legacy for a very tasty bar! We’ve loved looking at your photos so far, keep them coming!

Way back in the mists of time, before the advent of camera phones or even digital cameras, our good friend Steve Wales created River Legacy by handing over the events and assets of his company to create a charitable trust. After fifteen years of leadership Steve has now retired as RL President. Very often over that period River Legacy was just Steve, plugging away and toiling to put on these events that help to support paddling in England and Wales. Without Steve’s dedication it’s unlikely that events such as Teifi Tour and National Student Rodeo would be as successful as they are now, or that us old boys would be looking back on events like Dee Tour and Polzeath with such fond memories. Having said that, River Legacy has always been about more than a bunch of paddlers on the ale in a field – When we achieved Registered Charity status we summarised our aims as ‘Providing funding, facilities and support for paddlesports in England and Wales’. Thanks to the hard work of Steve, and those that he managed to rope in to help along the way, we’ve been able to provide funding for a number of projects that help paddlers get on the water each and every weekend. This, above all, is the core reason that all our volunteers pitch in to help. So, next time you’re at the bar at one of our events remember that our profits go to help paddlesports in the UK, and maybe treat yourself, and us, to an extra shandy. More importantly than that though, if you’re aware of a paddlesports project that River Legacy could help out with, be it help with fundraising or by way of a River Legacy donation, let us know. Just grab us at the bar or drop us an email on team@river-legacy.org.uk We’ll be raising a toast of thanks to Steve at NSR – To Steve Wales, with thanks for 15 years of hard work and dedication. The River Legacy Team

Hope everyone who came to join us at Teifi Tour had as much fun as we had! It was amazing turnout, with huge numbers on the water and partying hard over the weekend. Big thanks to everyone who helped make the event happen, all our RL volunteers, the guys and girls at Llandysul Paddlers, and to Whitewater Consultancy, Yak Adventure Equipment, Robson Paddles UK and Pyranha Kayaks for the kind donations of prizes! See you next time!

Oh my. So that was National Student Rodeo 2014. Big River Legacy love must go to all of those who came together to make it happen, especially the lovely Rodeo Bosses from Luucc as well as all our wonderful volunteers. Huge thanks too to the guys at Marquees.Com Ltd and SQUAWK Brewing Company for supporting River Legacy at NSR this year. We love you all!